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West Seattle wildlife: Lunch break for road-crossing otter

We’ve shared photos taken by others, but never before have we had the chance to personally photograph one of Alki’s famous road-crossing river otters. S/he just turned up while we were standing on the Duwamish Head seawall to get a photo of this great blue heron …

Then a gentleman unloading a Wiseman’s Appliance truck shouted something like “THERE’s your photo op!” – we turned, and the otter was suddenly on the sidewalk, galumphing over to slide down the seawall:

… and onto the beach. It was just about noon, so, we assume, lunch break time. PLEASE be careful when you drive Alki Avenue … the otters seem to be frequent commuters.

Any word on when the city will start installing ”otter only” lanes next to the bike lanes down there? Seriously though, hope none of these otters get hit. Really nice to live in a major city with such a variety of wildlife.

I wonder if there is still an active Alki Backyard habitat FB group? I remember talking to them a couple of years ago about an organized pursuit of otter crossing signs at one of the beach festivals. But I was told there weren’t enough volunteers to get it started.

I don’t know – maybe their community council could partner with other similar groups to explore it. Just need peeps with time and willing to patiently persevere and follow through. There are turtle-crossing signs on highways down south, so as I’ve said before, it bet it could be done here for these critters.

I definitely agree, quite seriously, that we need some “wildlife crossing” signs. That road is frequented by tourists trying to show off by speeding in expensive cars and people so busy looking for parking that they aren’t looking where they’re going. It’s only a matter of time before someone hits an otter.

I was really surprised to see an otter over the weekend on a busy stretch of beach, near Anchor Park. It was not at all afraid of the people watching and photographing it, which makes me a little concerned it might saunter across the road without much fear.

Wonderful picture! A few years ago my husband and I were heading to Southcenter via 509 and 518 and as we were going down 2nd towards the 509 entrance, we spotted an otter “galumphing” across the road. It was a rather startling but wonderful sight!

Enjoy playing cards? Make plans to be at Meeples Games (3727 California SW) on Thursday night to play a new card game with the local dad and daughter who created it. Their announcement: West Seattle father and daughter team, Chad and Lillian Gray, invite you to come and play their new card game, Goa...